Seamless switching of scalable video bitstreams

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(11)

EP 1 331 822 A3

(12)	EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION

(88)	Date of publication A3:
	07.01.2004 Bulletin 2004/02

(43)	Date of publication A2:
	30.07.2003 Bulletin 2003/31

(21)	Application number: 03000607.6

(22)	Date of filing: 14.01.2003

(51)	International Patent Classification (IPC)⁷: H04N 7/24

(84)	Designated Contracting States:
	AT BE BG CH CY CZ DE DK EE ES FI FR GB GR HU IE IT LI LU MC NL PT SE SI SK TR
	Designated Extension States:
	AL LT LV MK RO

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Priority:

25.01.2002 US 351891 P
27.06.2002 US 186298

(71)	Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
	Redmond, Washington 98052-6399 (US)

(72)	Inventors:
	Wu, Feng Beijing, 100080 (CZ) Li, Shipeng Irvine, California 92602 (US) Sun, Xiaoyan Haidian District, Beijing 100080 (CZ) Zhang, Ya-Qin Haidian District, Beijing 100080 (CZ)

(74)	Representative: Grünecker, Kinkeldey, Stockmair & Schwanhäusser Anwaltssozietät
	Maximilianstrasse 58 80538 München 80538 München (DE)

(54)	Seamless switching of scalable video bitstreams

(57) In accordance with certain aspects of the present invention, methods and apparatuses are provided according to a seamless bitstream switching scheme. The seamless switching scheme can be used with scalable video bitstreams, and can take advantage of both the high coding efficiency of non-scalable bitstreams and the flexibility of scalable bitstreams. Small bandwidth fluctuations can be accommodated by the scalability of the bitstreams, while large bandwidth fluctuations can be tolerated by switching among scalable bitstreams. The flexible and effective scheme for seamless switching among scalable bitstreams significantly improves the efficiency of scalable video coding over a broad bit rate range.

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